license plate lamp bracket <-------part looked like it came off the Titanic yet everything else door related still looks like new. Have since replaced with OEM bracket that I heavily coated with rustoleum red primer; rustoleum flat black high temp paint; black rubberized undercoating. Also replaced bulb assemblies.
A couple of years ago had to replace rear-end pinion seal to fix leak...bought new pinion bearing but couldn't detect any play at all with original one so didn't change it out since I blamed yanking out a stuck Dodge Ram pickup buried up to the axle in mud as the likely reason for pinion seal failure as I noticed leak days later.
Rear-end Differential or "pumpkin" as some of us rednecks like to call it actually rotted through on the driver side left upper radius near top where vent hose is<-------never have seen a rear diff do this as they are normally made of cast iron and very thick.....apparently the VX has steel differential housings and this was a weak spot on mine. I actually called Merlin thinking I needed a seal between the 3rd member & differential housing (there is no seal...they RTV it at the factory) as it was leaking rear-end lube and half the diff housing was wet; only to find it had rotted through. Had a buddy of mine who is one heck of a welder & steel fabricator weld up a steel patch over the affected area and he did a bang-up job clean/prep & primer & paint & (extenze anti-rust) & undercoat plus peen over patch to blend in and you virtually cannot tell it has been repaired...rest of differential seems strong.
Rocker panel area where I mounted my Rocksliders is all rotted out...gonna have same friend of mine who repaired above affliction fabricate new steel rocker panel panels of much thicker content and install in next few weeks. Rest of underneath of VX looks good just this area.
Heat shields on engine manifolds were just hanging there rattling...yanked them out by hand & threw in garbage as they had rusted out.
Might have him weld rocksliders as I made him aware of the attitude toward welding on a VX frame and his many years of MIG..TIG..ARGON..ETC..welding made him look at me like I'm crazy. He says he could do it with no ill-effects but I'll probably chicken-out and just have them re-bolted on.
Last edited by Jolly Roger VX'er : 08/31/2010 at 02:14 PM
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]"If its fast and reliable, its not cheap;
if its fast and cheap, its not reliable;
if its cheap and reliable, its not fast."
If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?
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